Light in the Dark
by ThyNameNotSpoken
Summary: Ember's in med school but it could never have prepared her for what was outside her house one night. It was a chance encounter that brought Ember into the lives of the Turtles. It was nothing like Ember had ever sense before and was happy to have people who cared for her until her family gets involved. No matter how far Ember ran, her past would always haunt her.
1. Chapter 1

It was like any other night for Raph. He and Leo had a fight, so he went out with Casey to blow off some steam. He felt great fighting a group of Purple Dragons. Leaving his sias in his belt in favor of a more personal approach. He was in a cold sweat by the time they finished. The air chilly with the on comings of winter. Casey gave a holler of excitement and adrenalin.

Raph enjoyed the cold air in his lungs. It cooled his anger and he was able to realize just how stupid of a fight Fearless had picked. Casey turned to leave waving goodbye. Raph turned back to the bright lights of the city with a deep sigh. He allowed himself to relax a little, letting his tense muscles unravel. He shivered as a cool breeze blew over his sweaty skin distracting him from the approaching danger.

He was a scrawny kid. Sixteen or 17 with red dyed hair. He gripped the two foot black pipe in his fists with clammy hands. Holding his breath as he approached the creature he'd heard so much about. Tonight had been his initiation until this freak and the maniac Casey Jones showed up and ruined it. Taking a deep breath through a long bony nose he swung the pipe like a bat, solidly connecting with the back of Raphael's green head.

Raph slumped forward and fell off the two story building engulfed by the dark shadows of the alley below. The red headed boy let out a yell of victory already piecing together his bragging story.

Raph, on the way down, came back to consciousness just before his leg rammed into the fire escape sending a bolt of pain to his throat, but before he could let it out in the form of a yell his shell collided with the harsh concert of the alley floor. All he could do was let out a strangled breath before he passed out.

It was thirty minutes later a startled cry echoed in the alley. A young woman in her early to mid-twenties dropped her keys as she looked at the creature or man, she wasn't really sure, passed out in her alley. Setting down her bag of groceries the blond headed woman leaned forward her curls swing forward slightly as she access the guy's injuries.

He had a pretty nasty gash on his leg, a bag goose egg on the back of his head, and felt rather cold. Taking off her scarf she wrapped it around the leg wound and prepared herself to drag him inside. She was able to sit him up and let out a gasp. A long crack ran down his shell.

Her mind was reeling trying to figure out what he was and how to properly treat his wound by herself. She knew her years in medical school would be put to the test. Hooking her arms under Raph's the woman dragged his dead weight inside.

The woman slightly freaked out still dialed the number of her veterinarian friend.

"Hey, Jane, sorry for calling you so late, but I just got home a found this—" she thought for a moment "This adorable little turtle outside my door. It has a cracked shell." Jane carefully explained what she should do.

"Is the crack vertical or horizontal?" Jane asked.

"Vertical."

"Alright Ember, is it closed or is there a noticeable gap?" Ember examined the crack.

"No, it's closed."

"That's good, get some antiseptic and clean it and put a bandage on the crack. It should be fine and fuse back together, but keep an eye on it. If starts to look infected bring the turtle to me. Okay?" Ember agreed, gathering the necessary medical supplies. She decided that his leg need attention first.

She poured alcohol on the three inch long and one inch gash and jumped when Raph jerked. Letting out a shaky breath, Ember prepared to stitch the wound. The laceration left the muscle tore in places. Glad she kept her cabinet stocked Ember neatly brought the skin together. She finished and wrapped his leg in starch white gauze. Pushing Raph onto his plastron she cleaned and bandaged the crack. Already planning to run to the hardware store tomorrow for some epoxy resin for good measure.

Relaxing she sat on her couch looking at his passed out form. After a few minutes she went back out to alley with a flash light and searched the ground for any clues as to where he came from. After a few swipes of the flash light, light was reflected back at her. Walking over she picked up the weird object. It looked like a turtle shell with a screen much like her cell phones. She grimaced he she realized it was covered in something sticky.

Picking up the flash light she dropped the device with a screech realizing it was covered in drying blood and had been sitting in a fairly large puddle of it. This worried her. She was already way out of her league with this one, but with this much blood loss her patient could be out for days, maybe weeks and she wasn't step of for that type of treatment. All she could do was pray for the best.

Searching the alley one last time, Ember grabbed the grocery bag she'd dropped and headed inside. For thirty minutes she attempted to turn on what she could only assume was a communicating device which meant that this creature probably had someone worried about him. But it was no use. The thing was shot. The screen and the shell looking part were crushed and it was sat in blood for who knows how long.

Frustrated that she couldn't do anything more for the guy she focused her energy on him, the scientist coming out in her. Gripping her note book she jotted notes about his injuries and how she treated them and made a few sketches of him from different angles.

Sleep avoided her till early morning—just as the sun was rising—she fell asleep on the couch. When she woke she was disappointed to find he was still fast asleep and the next day. His chest rising and falling rhythmically. Standing groggily she walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and start some breakfast—or lunch in this case.

Kneeling, Ember lifted Raph's head onto her lap at an angle and gently poured water into his mouth. She knew if he were to wake up now things would not end well. Glancing at the belt around his waist she noted the three prong weapons and other dangerous looking objects. As she poured more water into his mouth she wondered who and what he was. What his story was. Where he was from. And why he'd fallen into her particular care.

Setting his head back down she made her way back to the kitchen to flip her frying eggs. She looked over her shoulder at Raph wondering what would happen is he died. If he did have family or someone that cared about him, how on earth would she let them know?

That had been weighing heavily on her conscious since she found him. Ember carefully flipped the egg. There was nothing she could do except wait and see.

At first she didn't notice the shuffled, her house made a lot of strange noises, till she heard him goan. When Ember turned around Raph was already bracing himself on his forearm and squinting at her. Her immediate thought was his leg but all that came out of her mouth was a pitiful "Hi."

"Where the hell am I?"

She tried to form words but she was trying to process the overload of information. "Holy shit," finally slipped out. All her years of studying could never have prepared her for this. A giant talking turtle. Then the white gauze caught her eye and she snapped back. "Your leg."

"What?"

"Y-Your leg. I had to give you stitches." Ember tried to move herself closer to him, but the counter stuck to her like glue. Raph looked down finally realizing that his leg was bandaged.

"How long have I been out?" He was silently praying that it hadn't been very long.

"About two days."

"Fuck!"

Ember flinched and accidentally set her hand on the hot stove causing her to yelp in pain. She ran over to the sink and rain her palm under cold water. It wasn't going as bad as she thought it would be though. Raph attempted to stand still his leg gave out and he got yell at by his blonde caretaker.

"Who the hell are you anyway? Footclan? Bishop? What?"

"I don't know who the Footclan or Bishop is. My name's Ember and I found you outside my house half dead. You lost a lot of blood. . .I was beginning to think you weren't going to wake up." She finally got the nerve to approach him with a glass of water and her burnt eggs. "Sorry." She muttered and left to get supplies to change his bandage.

"So what's your name?" She took a pair of scissors and cut the gauze and peeled it off. Raph hissed and she apologized again.

"Raph. My name's Raph." He watched her take the wet cloth and gently wipe the wound. It was pretty nasty looking, but she'd stitched it up nicely. Just as well as Donnie would have as far as he could tell. The thing was, if she wasn't with the Footclan and wasn't working for Bishop, who was she?

"This might hurt." She warned just before she pour alcohol on the gash.

"So what, you're just a good citizen who helps out half dead freaks?"

Ember shot a glance at him and met his amber eyes. "Look, you were hurt—really bad by the way—and I helped because I am a good person."

"Fine, Ms. I'm A Good Person, can I use your phone."

"Yeah, just let me finish." Ember turned back to rewrapping his leg. She ripped the gauze with her teeth and tapped it. "All done." She declared and proceeded to helping Raph get off the floor and onto the couch which was quite the ordeal since she was five foot nothing and Raph being so much bigger than her.

She got the phone out of her purse and unlocked it for him. "Wait, where's my shellcell?" He started patting his belt and looked at Ember for an answer.

"Oh you mean this thing?" She help up the smashed phone looking thing. "Did you make this?"

"No, my brother did." He groaned seeing it was more than shattered

"You do have family?"

"Dammit." Raph hit the dial button.

"Hey, this is Mikey's Party service, how may I help you?" Raph rolled his eyes.

"Mikey."

"Raph! Where are you man? We've been freaking out!"

"I know, I'm sorry. Look—Mikey!—I'm at. . .um. . ." He turned to Ember and handed her the phone.

"What?"

"Just tell him where this place is."

"Right. Hello?"

"Um, hello?" Mikey replied confused as all get out. "There's a girl on the phone." He whispered to Leo, Donnie, and Master Splinter who were waiting in anticipation to find out where their hot head brother went.

"Hi, my name's Ember, I found your . . . Brother? . . . outside my apartment the other night pretty banged up. My address is 3174 Winchester Avenue."

Mikey relayed the information to his other brothers and his father before bolting to the party wagon.

"H-Hello?" She look over to Raph, "He hung up. I think their on their way."

"Typical." Raph mutter.

"Are you hungry. I promise I don't usually burn food."

"Starving." He managed to hobble over to the kitchen table. While she stated reheating food.

"I wasn't sure when you'd wake up, so I've been preparing." She drummed her fingers against the counter as her thought ran wild. "I'm sorry I couldn't let them know. I-I'm sorry." The microwave still had two minutes.

Part of Raph wanted to trust her then the other part said to knock her out and run. "You can't tell anyone about me or my family or you'll regret it."

"Like they would believe me, besides I wouldn't do that." Ember huffed not able to believe that after everything she had done for him he would threaten her.

"Right, good citizen."

"What's your problem? I'm just trying to help you. You know some people are actually nice." She realized that he had probably had some serious trouble with these Footclan people and who ever the hell Bishop was, but she was nice. They had a stare down for a few seconds till the microwave beeped. She poked the French toast and pulled her finger back quickly. "Yep that's hot."

She grabbed a bottle of syrup and set the plate down in front of him or rather dropped.

"Look, we're just not used to people willingly helping us out of the goodness of their hearts." He replied honestly. Maybe Ember really was a good person, but they couldn't take the chance, or at least he didn't want to. He figured Leo would probably agree, but he did owe her for saving his life.

There was honk just as Raph finished up his toast. "Do you have a back door?"

"Yeah, it's the one I dragged you in through." Raph scowled at her as she walked towards a hall way.

Ember took a deep breath before she opened the door. She knew Raph had at least one brother, the one she talked to, but she wasn't expecting him to have three.

"Um, hi."

"You're Ember."

"Yes." They all seemed to relax. "Come inside. Raph's eating at the table."

The air was heavy as she led the other turtle creatures, everyone tense. The one wearing an orange mask ran over to Raph with mock blubbering. Ember smiled and assumed that was Mikey.

"Thank you." Leo said to the short blonde, but still tense in case this was all a trap.

"Happy to help." She pushed a curl behind her ear as she watched the family reunion. Ember turned and went to gather up supplies for Raph's wound. She packed into a sack and tried to figure out who she should give it to.

Mikey was over by her TV looking through her movies, the one wearing blue was talking to Raph, and the one wearing purple was standing off to the side looking over his injured brother.

"Excuse me," she gently touch Donnie's arm to get his attention. "Sorry I don't know your name. Uh, this is for Raph. He needs the bandage changed twice a day. I wasn't-I wasn't sure what you had so. . ." She trailed off and handed the bag to Donnie.

"Thank you. I'm Donnie." He smiled at her to help her nerves. He could only imagine what the last few days had been like for her. "We have some of this stuff, but this will be a great help."

"If you need more just ask. I can get it for free from the college."

"You're studying to be a nurse?"

"Yeah, I want to be a doctor though."

"So how bad is Raph's wound?"

"I'm not really sure what caused it, but I'm pretty sure he fell off the roof and hit something on the way down. It's about three inches long and about an inch deep. He tore some muscle. I stitched him back up as best I could and it's healing well, but he needs to stay off that leg for a few week minimum." She tried to think of anything she missed. "Oh, and his shell was cracked, but its minor. My Vet friend said it's be fine. I sealed it-"

"Wait, You told some one?" Raph suddenly butted in. Ember frowned at his distrust.

"Yes, I called my Vet friend and told her I found a injured turtle outside my house with a cracked shell." She rolled her eyes and sent a glare to her patient.

"Thank you for your help." Leo said feeling less tense but ready to get out of here. "Mikey, help me with Raph." Leo called over to Mikey and helped Raph stand.

He gave a curse but managed to get to his feet and lean on Leo. Mikey got under his other arm and they helped through him to the car. Ember watched the whole thing, wincing when Raph cursed and feeling guilty about not have any pain medicine for him or at least enough.

"You ready Don?" Leo asked from the front seat.

"Yeah," he turned to Ember, "you can't tell anyone about us. Like at all."

"What? Really? I was about to go chat with my neighbor about this whole weekend, now what will I do with my free afternoon?" Ember gave a fake pout and popped a hip as if she were think of something to do.

Donnie laughed and got into the passenger seat.

She sighed as they turned the corner of the ally. The blonde was still trying to absorb everything that had happened. Then it finally dawned on her, "Mutants are really, holy shit." That had to be an answer. What else would explain their appearances. Then again they could be aliens, she considered. But if they were aliens what were they doing on Earth. And if they were mutants were they turtle or human first, not to mention how they mutated.

In the end she decided she should start on all the homework she meant to do this weekend before her unexpected guest. So she opened her book and laptop and make herself believe she'd never see them again.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a week later at five in the morning that rapid knocking woke Ember up from a dead sleep.

"I'm coming!" She yelled while stumbling down the hall and flipped the light on. She looked into the peek hole and saw green. Immediately she was awake and flung the door open. Donnie was standing in the early morning light looking weary.

"I need your help."

"What's wrong? Is it Raph?"

"Yeah. He ripped his stitches and I don't have enough sutures to fix him up. I need you're help, too."

Ember didn't ask any more questions. She ran to get her medical bad she kept in the bathroom and back to Donnie, almost falling twice.

Donnie drove quickly through the streets to the entrance of the sewers they used and realized too late that he hadn't covered Ember's eyes.

Ember's eyes were wide as they entered a large sewer access point and Don flipped the lights on. Ember tried to relax but her mind was racing with who she and Donnie would have to do once they got to their home. They pulled to a stop into a nice looking area, but ember grabbed her bag and ran with Donnie through a hall and into a large main room, but Donnie continued to another slide door and threw it open.

Raph was sitting on a stool and a deep red towel pressed to his leg. Several bloody gauze pads lay on the floor around him. "You idiot!" She cursed. "I told you not to do whatever the hell it was you did." Raph wasn't able to defend himself since he was focusing on fighting the pain.

Ember pulled the towel away and surveyed the damage. He'd ripped most of his stitches including several of the internal muscle ones. "Donnie I need alcohol!" He handed her the bottle and looked around for something hard. She grabbed a short piece of wood and gave it to Rpah.

"Bite down on this." He did thinking she was just going to start stitch hem up.

Ember didn't feel bad about pouring the alcohol into Raph's wound. She knew it hurt like a mother. "Maybe that will teach you not to do stupid shit!" Raph could only growl through the pain and bite down on the block of wood.

"Alright." Ember breathed as she wiped the away the blood and isolated the artery causing it. She tied it and moved on to the muscle. She worked fast and cleaned it again with alcohol again since this wasn't the cleanest of environments.

Donnie was on the other side of Raph's leg watching Ember work amazed at her speed and calmness. He hoped the scolding Raph was getting would work this time. Ember cleaned the wound several times as she made the final sutures much to Raph distain but Ember wasn't about to let him die of infection not after everything else.

She finished the last one and dried the area for the bandage. After she finished wrapping this leg she got a syringe. "I'm going to give you a booster, just a precaution." She grabbed two more and looked at Donnie.

"How much does he weigh?" Raph have asked Rpah but he was still recovering.

"Around 350 I think."

"Holy shit, ok." She put one syringe back and handed one to Don. "On the count of three."

At the same time they pushed the needle into Raph's biceps and pushed the plunger down. She threw the syringe into a trash can.

"He's all done?" Ember could only nod. Her adrenaline wearing off quickly.

Raph was weak from the blood loss and pain and Ember knew he'd be asleep soon.

Ember leaned against Donnie giving herself a pat on the back for a job well done. "I need something with sugar."

Donnie nodded and let her sit on his work bench before getting them some food. He came back Rice Crispy treats one of Embers guilty pleasures. "Thanks Donnie." She said as she ripped open the shiny package.

"No problem. Want me to take you home?"

"I want to make sure he recovers alright. I don't have class till two."

"Ok. Are you feeling better?"

"Yep." Ember ripped open another and bit in.

"Come on, we should let him rest." Donnie took the blonds hand and led her out of his lab and into the main room. He was surprised to see the rest of his family standing there including April and Casey.

Ember's eyes bounced from one thing to another. The two humans, the giant rat, Leo and Mikey. She had to close her eyes and hope Don would just say something already.

"Ember?" her blue eyes opened and met Mikey's worried eyes. "Is Raph gonna be alright?"

"He'll be fine, Mikey. As long as he doesn't do anything stupid again." The youngest turtle relaxed knowing his brother would be fine.

"You're the best Ember!" he scooped the blonde up in a hug and swung her around. "Oh, guys this is Ember. She's saved Raph's life twice now!" he set said girl on her feet and introduced her to April and Casey.

"Hi." She waved shyly not liking all the attention.

"Thank you." The read head hugged Ember tightly, tears in her eyes. What would they have done if Ember hadn't found Raph?

"No—no problem."

"We owe you, Ember." Ember looked to Leo after April let go and could only smile.

"Just doing a good thing I guess." And to think, she thought, I almost had myself convinced that it was all just a dream.

"This is your father." Leo gestured to the giant rat.

"I have so many questions right now." Ember blushed when everyone laughed.

"I'm sure you do, dear. Come with me."

"Yes! Story time!" Mikey cheered.

"No Michelangelo. Just Ms. Ember." Ember gave a sorry shrug to Mikey.

"We'll do something when we get back ok?" his face lit up again and Donnie groaned. Ember giggled at them. They seemed like such a nice family. Unlike her own.

She followed the giant rat to another room with sliding doors with what looked like Japanese paintings. "Wow," she breathed as they entered. Hundreds of candles were lit around the room and what smelt like incense burned in a corner.

Ember and Master Splinter sat on his meditation mat where he had been before Donnie had ran in to tell him he was going to get Ember.

"Hello Ember, I am Master Splinter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." It was a little hard to see in the candle light but he looked kind to Ember.

"You saved my son?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Ember didn't know how to respond. This family didn't trust easy. They probably didn't trust her fully for whatever reason. So she chose her words carefully.

"I found Raph hurt and unconscious. So I dragged him into my home and helped him. I had no way to contact you or your family. I was so scared he would die." Ember's eyes dropped to her hands.

Master Splinter thought as he poured two cups of tea. "You have a good heart. Thank you for saving my son. Twice." He handed a cup to the blonde.

"So what is your story?" Ember asked hopeful. She had many questions she wanted answered.

"Of course. But it is quiet the story."

Ember listened attentively as Master Splinter spoke absorbing every detail and cup of tea till the pot was empty.

"So they've saved New York several times?"

Splinter nodded, "Now, what is your story, Ember?"

"Well," she started carefully. "there's not much to tell. My family lives in California. My father owns a big firm. My older brother's the star of the family." She trailed off not sure what else there was to say. "I don't have any real connection to them. It's just me."

"I am sorry to hear that. Family is something to be treasured."

"Not mine." Ember said somewhat bitterly.

 **Sorry Rony Kunou :)**


End file.
